Past and Present
by thesuperdot
Summary: A terrible accident has occured leaving only Jeremy as the lone survivor! Xana's very own plan backfired and it is now up to a new group to finish the battle.
1. A Terrible Accident

Past and Present

By thesuperdot

Chapter 1: A Terrible Accident

Author's Note: Yeah, that's right, I'm doing another Code: Lyoko fic! This one should be 10xs better than what I have written in the past, with the exception of my two Invader Zim fics. Please review, and flames and such are more than welcome!

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A sharp beeping in a dorm room caused a blond haired boy to wake with a start. But that wasn't his reason for waking.

He could have sworn he was at an underground computer room when a flash of white occurred. Ah, yes, he was indeed, and it appears that he was sent back in time. But did he trigger it? Or did Xana…?

Fumbling for the lights, he turned them on and found his glasses, and hurriedly put on his clothes. He ran out the door, not even bothering to shut it. He didn't even notice the little blinking message on his computer that read: "Lyoko connection lost."

Down the hall, around the corner was his destination, another dorm room where his two best friends should be at, sleeping. Odd and Ulreck…

Sliding to a stop in front of the door, he knocked on it. Ulreck should be up by now…

"Ulreck…? Are you there?" Jeremy asked, more nervous than he had hoped.

It should be said here that the door opened and Ulreck said hi and everything, but alas, that was not the case. His knock went unheard, so he tried harder, perhaps Odd's snoring was louder than usual. Still nothing, so he used the key they had given him and went it.

How bizarre. They weren't there. There was no trace, the bed that each slept in look like it was just made. Nothing was out of place except for the fact that they were missing. He looked in the restroom, nothing. He scoured the closet, nothing. Not a trace of their whereabouts could be found.

He was shaking now, as he reached for his phone. He dialed the number for Yumi's house. Her mother answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi ma'am, this is Jeremy. Is Yumi there?"

There was a pause. "Oh, hi. No, I'm sorry, she's not. In fact I haven't seen at all this morning. Maybe she left early or something…?"

Jeremy's shaking increased as he listened and he tried his best not to sound worried. :Maybe your right, I just got up myself. Thank you ma'am, for telling me."

Before she could reply, he hung up. He was already headed toward the cafeteria.

Arriving there, he saw the usual mess of students and teachers, but nowhere could he find them. Then a thought struck him. It didn't really strike him; it was simply lurking in the dark recesses of his mind. A kind of worst possible out come. He ran back to his room, his computer would surely hold the answer!

Once he got there, his heart sank to the soul of his foot. No way…

"Lyoko connection lost."

Maybe, maybe a wire was undone. He checked each and every wire but still the message was there. Jeremy slumped in his chair. This cannot be happening… It just can't…

He got up again, this time; he had to go to the source. He had to go to the factory!

He got there as soon as classes started, but he didn't care. He had to know, he had to know if his friends were alright. He punched in the code, and rode down the monitor room.

As the door opened, he knew something was wrong. Hopping in the seat, he was right. The computer didn't respond at all. Not even a flicker of life from the thing to ease his mind. Shaking more than ever, he went to the server room.

And there he saw it. The computer rose up, like it should, but the switch was off.

Lyoko was off. Jeremy fell to his knees in front of the tower, staring at the switch.

No! No, it can't be! How…? Why…? Why did Xana shut himself off? Wait… He didn't, it was his fault though… That storm… The electrical storm he made it…

But that didn't make sense. If that is indeed what happened, time would not have reversed. Well, theoretically…

Jeremy's emotions caught up to him, and he began to cry.

He had lost everything.

His friends, Odd, Ulreck, Yumi, and even, Aleita…

His passion. All the work on getting Aleita out of there was useless.

His life. What was the point of living if the ones who made it worthwhile were gone?

Wait! The switch is off! If time DID reverse, then, the computer will still work.

He reached for it, but stopped. What if they were killed? What if this was what Xana had in mind?

He stayed there for most the day debating what to do. He finally decided. It wasn't an easy decision, but he knew what he should do.

He would leave the computer off.

He would then take all the data he had on Lyoko, Alieta, Xana, everything and create a simulation program. There he would test everything, from strategies, to making Alieta live.

He would even create a program to delete Xana forever, but until that day, that glorious day arrived, the computer would stay off. He would never let himself come back.

He walked into the elevator with a new determination. Xana, you will pay for what you did.

You.

Will.

Pay.

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Next Chapter Soon! That was a good start if I do say so myself! Now, because I'm juggling 3 stories, (Past and Present, The Tallest Betrayal, Zim and Dib's Finale), this won't be on a set update date. Just letting you know.


	2. 20 Years

Past and Present

By thesuperdot

Chapter 2: 20 Years

Author's Note: I have just been informed I've spelt some names wrong, namely, Ulrich and Aelita. So sorry, but I haven't written a C:L fic for a while.

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It has now been 20 years since that fateful day. Jeremy has moved on since then.

A few days after it was apparent that something was wrong, and that Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi were gone, the police and other officials were called in.

Jeremy stayed as far away from that circus; he was too tormented by his friend's deaths, or rather, imprisonment, to want to help. And for a while, it worked.

Right up until someone realized that the ones who were missing were friends of Jeremy's, and to just that, but _close_ friends.

Jeremy was immediately put in the spotlight, a number of media networks caught wind of what was going on. Small stations, large stations, everyone with the same thing:

"Where were they?"

A number of tales had begun to spawn. The most popular being this:

'In a school somewhere in France, four friends lived near each other. Anyone who had seen them would tell you that there was a bond between them. Not juts any bond, not just friendship. It was more like a war-like bond. You know the kind of bond that happens to the people who experienced the same thing. Something they could relate to and only they can relate to. They would always go somewhere and play, no one could tell where, they took care to cover their tracks. Until one day, three went missing. One remained. What happened to the other? No one knows…'

That tale made the rounds, as well as some rumors. Nasty rumors.

One of which was like so: 'They found something big. One of them got greedy and…' you can figure out the rest.

But no matter how hard the police and officials tried, they could not get answer from Jeremy. He was making a point not to. After all, who'd believe him?

Everything was tried, with the exception of a truth serum, Jeremy's parents were adamant against that. He was only a child!

Eventually, the case was declared cold and closed. But, in the back of everyone's mind, they knew that he knew what _really_ happened. And he did, but who would believe him?

Jeremy was never looked at the same again. But he didn't care, his view was let them think what they want. It didn't matter.

A few weeks pasted, and after a slump in his grades, he decided to do his fullest in classes. His reasoning was that his friends wouldn't want him sulking about.

2 years later he jumped straight to high school. Many were shocked at the sudden bounce back he performed. When they asked him, he would always give the same reply: "My friends would not want me to mourn them; they would want me to live life. So, I will, and I am." Nobody would question him any further.

As soon as he completed high school he had been in college for 2 years and very close to graduating it.

Sure enough, 2 more years later, he graduated. In attendance for his graduation were not only his parents, but Ulrich's, Odd's, and Yumi's. They later said that if he did know, we would have told them. Besides, he had no influence in their disappearance. Afterward, one of the best parties Jeremy had ever been to was held in his honor.

The next 10 years were spent in various colleges, universities, and institutes. Here he absorbed the computer related knowledge. He had no troubles with it, as his high grades and test scores snagged him a place in every last college and such.

Near the end of his 10 year college tour, he created his own Operating System. He called it Jeremy's Operating System, or JOS. On a whim, he sent it to the multi-million dollar companies to see what they thought of it. This kicked off what was to be the 10 of fame.

The response was immediate. His OS was a smash hit! Each company paid him double what the other offered to have him help them. Not only did Jeremy's system work wonders, but the computer industries technology grow 10 xs in one year than it had ever done. All because of Jeremy and his OS.

He was then noticed by the governments. They approached him and asked him to assist them in beta-testing a new GPS system. Jeremy did so, and spotted 87 errors and 203 bugs in the first week; he corrected them and instantly ousted the top experts on the technology.

He also reorganized the entire network in the US CIA, making the network admin look like a novice in the field. He did this to many others, and was given the highest security clearance possible. They knew he was trustworthy, why wouldn't he be? The only thing that kept coming up was the day his friends had disappeared, but other than that, he was clean.

As this continued, he began to do, secret jobs for the military. Jobs such as hacking criminal computers and retrieving crucial data and disguising agents as drug dealers to get mole in the mafia. But Jeremy's logic was that if it kept bad people out of the streets, he had nothing to be ashamed about.

During all of this, Jeremy's raw power with a computer gave him a somewhat of a god-like icon. Soon enough, he had a gathering of cult-like followers and his works were revered throughout the world. Many were compared to the level of Jeremy and soon the J-Standard was introduced in the computer field. The common question being "How do you rate this against Jeremy?"

At the end of 10 years, Jeremy decided to step down from the position of his many jobs and consulting and opt for a more quiet approach. Taking a portion of his vast wealth, he bought a small house not too far from the very school he was taught at. There he took a job as the head of the science department and also as network administrator.

He still helps out the various governments, but only as a beta tester, hardly as a network admin.

But there is one thing he still does to this day. He has kept his promise he made on that fateful day. He still spends as much time as possible trying to figure out how to save his friends. So far, he ahs only made it about 22 percent of the way to a solution, but he still tries.

Our story however has nothing more to do with Jeremy, however. At least, not at the moment.

You see, the wheels of fate were in motion. Four friends have been found at the very school that Jeremy works at, and, although they do not know it, today is the day that the past becomes present.

Four friends, closely resembling the original four have arrived.

And at the moment, two are watching a third stuff his face in the cafeteria.

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Next Chapter Soon! Yeah baby! This is going great, or at least I think so.


	3. Resemblances

Past and Present

By thesuperdot

Chapter 3: Resemblances

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"Hey, Ax, eat much?" Said a kid near the one named 'Ax'.

Ax, or rather his real name was Axenal Baramus, looked up at his close friend with a reproachful look. There was a very good reason for this, and after swallowing a heaping bite, he spoke with a frown. "You know why I'm eating this way."

Axenal look a great deal like Odd, but, there were differences. Ax wore a red, with long, yellow sleeves shirt and an orange vest. He had deep red pants and a pair of bright red walking boots. His eyes were a deep brilliant blue, and he had red hair. But, Ax took great care in shaping it and everything, even going to a stylist to get blond highlights and spike it. He then would carefully sculpt it into what would look like fire. He gave the impression that he was made of fire.

Ax lived off campus with his parents. But, and this was the reason for why he ate like Odd, his parents could not cook. They had to remodel their kitchen, not because they wanted to, but because Ax's father managed to start a fire by making toast. His mother was no better. She somehow managed to make iced tea taste like soap. Many people would say that if the Baramus' tried to cook for you, be sure you have a ride to the emergency room. This could not be said for Ax himself, though. Despite his parent's culinary inexperience, he was a culinary genius. There was nothing he couldn't make, be it a complex soufflé, or a simple cheese sandwich.

Ax's friend grimaced. "Eee, what was it, the waffles?" Terry Alsato, as his name was, recalled his experience with Ax's mother's waffles. He was absent for two days. Terry was more of the type who preferred sports to cooking. But that didn't mean he was a jock, he most certainly wasn't. He was, however, one you didn't want to challenge to a soccer match, seeing as he was captain of the school's and also the city's MVP of sorts. Last year, he managed to yet again, lead his team to the championship match and win.

Terry looked a lot like Ulrich, but, he too had differences. You would never see him without wearing his soccer shirt for his favorite team. He always claimed it brought him luck. Over top of his favorite shirt, he wore a multi-pocketed, blue jean jacket. His hair was jet black and always kept very tidy. He also wore blue jeans to match his jacket. He lived on campus, with his other friend as a roommate. He was sitting across from Ax and Terry, typing away on his laptop.

"Hey, guys, I found us a great place to explore." Ax said.

"Oh, yeah? Where?"

"It's an old abandoned factory down by the riverside. It's been there for about 30 years or so. I saw on a trip with my parents and have been itching to check it out."

Terry looked at Ax with raised eyebrows. "Really? Well shoot, that sounds interesting! I'm game."

"Really, an abandoned factory? What could possibly be there?" The geek said, looking up from his laptop.

Grant Godlove, as his name would be, fitted your typical geek-like persona. He had a laptop, loved computers and absolutely worshipped Jeremy's work. When he found out that the science class he would be going to would be taught by Jeremy himself, he nearly passed out. To think, being taught by the very mentor! In fact, his computer had JOS v3 on it, and he had even made a few modifications to it.

Grant normally wore a simple black, long sleeve shirt and a pair of dark green cargo pants. You could never see him with out a satchel slung over his shoulder, which he used to carry his laptop in, which was his most prized possession. He also wore wire rimmed glasses that were transitions and polarized to prevent glare. When he was partnered with Terry, they became, despite the typical stereotypes, fast friends. His personality, however, was not entirely like your typical geek. He had light brown hair that was long and pulled into a ponytail at the base of his neck, and his eyes were a jade green.

"I dunno, really, I just want to explore it. Wanna come?"

Grant smiled. "Walk through what is surely a condemned building for no apparent reason? How can I resist?" You see, Grant was adventurous, and like hanging out with his friends, which is why he had a laptop, so he could get out and about.

Ax laughed. "Ha, ha! I knew you'd come!"

Terry laughed as well. "Hey, Grant, whatcha doing? Hacking the governments system again?"

Grant looked at him. "Please. You know that's no challenge for me. I'm going for Jeremy himself!" He also liked to joke around with them.

Ax looked around. The fourth friend was missing. "Hey, where's Ceil?"

Terry groaned. "Not here. She must still be sleeping. Come on, let's go wake her up."

Ceil also lived on campus, in fact, she was staying in Jeremy's old dorm room, Terry and Grant were in Ulrich and Odd's.

Ceil was different, she snored, and also loved her sleep. If you woke her up, and you don't have a good reason, you will get hurt. Grant looked at the others, and shook his head.

"I did it last time! My arm still hurts!"

But despite his protests, he was dragged along to wake her up. They didn't have to, however, because when they knocked, she promptly opened the door.

"Hi guys!" She said cheerily. "What's up?"

Ceil was in almost all aspects, a very nice person. However, don't let her deceive you, because underneath the kindness, there was a lion hidden. She had a secret crush Terry, and so did Terry on her. Neither knew it, though, everyone else did.

Ceil had beautiful blond hair that was in a pony tail near the top of her head. She also had nice chocolate eyes and a welcoming smile. She liked to wear a blue headband, a pink shirt with light blue, long sleeves, and a pair of blue khakis.

"Nothing much. Terry and Ax wanted to come make sure you're up."

"Thank you. Well, I am."

Ax started in on the conversation. "Hey, what are you doing today?"

Ceil closed on of her eyes in concentration. "Uhhhm, nothing at the moment, why? Did you find a place to check out?"

Terry and Grant laughed. Ax could always be read like a book by Ceil.

Ax groaned. "Shut up, you two. Yeah, I did. It's an old factory by the river."

Ceil held her hand together and smiled with glee. "Really? Sweet, count me in!"

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Today was a special day for Jeremy. It was the anniversary of the disappearance of his friends. It was more of a personal day than anything else, but if one would look carefully, you would know what the day was.

The day progressed with out fail, and it soon came to be the last class of the day. Terry, Grant, and Ax were running late for class, science with Jeremy.

Just as soon as they crossed the threshold for Jeremy's class door, the bell rung. Each of them froze. Jeremy looked at them with a slight smile. The class was looking as well.

"Just made it, I see."

Everyone in the class chuckled. The friends smiled shyly. "Eh, yeah, I guess…" Ax said.

Jeremy made a motion with his head. "Take a seat, by all means." They did so. "Okay! Today we'll be making a perfume that smells like spearmint…"

When the bell rung, Ax, Grant and Terry stayed behind, Jeremy looked at them with curiosity. "The bell has rung; you can go, if you want."

"We would like to help clean up, sir."

Jeremy smiled and gave a chuckle. "Heh, you don't have to call me sir, call me Jeremy."

"Okay, Jeremy." Ax said; he had no problem calling him that. Around that time, a knock came on the door.

"Come in, oh and you can start by putting away the tools." Ceil came in.

"Hiya, guys! You ready yet?"

"Hey, Ceil, help us out, and we will!" Grant called.

Jeremy paused from his work at his laptop, still the one he used so long ago, to look at the four friends. As the memories came flooding back, he began to laugh.

"Hey, what's so funny?"

Jeremy continued smiling as he looked at each of them. "Oh, it's nothing. It's just, well…" He waved his hand in an off handed way.

"No, tell us, please?" Ceil asked.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "It's just, you remind me of my friends I had at your age. Man, the fun we had." He let out a heavy sigh.

Grant look at Jeremy with admiration. "Isn't, isn't today the day they…"

Jeremy shot an alarmed look at him. "Yes. Yes it is. But you shouldn't concern yourself with it!"

Grant bit his lip. "I, I'm sorry sir…"

Jeremy smiled again. "Don't worry about it. So, have anything planned for today?"

Ceil nodded. "Yeah, Ax found a place to explore today!"

"Oh, really? Well, you be careful."

Terry, Ax, Grant, and Ceil headed out the door. "Don't worry, we will!"

After arriving in the courtyard, Ceil smiled. "Alright! Onward to the factory!"

Who would have ever guessed a 20 year old nightmare would return?

Who would ever guess that another four friends would follow in similar footsteps?

No one, perhaps, but then again, strange things have happened.

Fate is all that can be said about this day. Pure fate.

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Next Chapter Soon. I also have not said that I don't own anything in Code: Lyoko except for Grant, Terry, Ax, and Ceil. There, that's done with.


	4. Exploration

Past and Present

By thesuperdot

Chapter 4: Exploration

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Beneath the surface of the school, and other buildings for that matter, a large network of old water tunnels ran to various places. No ever really used them anymore, computers controlled the water now. In fact, the most times those tunnels were used where when four friends traveled to an abandoned factory. That was 20 years ago.

Now four friends travel the same path, not knowing what was at the end.

"Whoa, hey Grant, how'd you find out about these tunnels?"

Grant smile and patted his laptop. "Trade secret, I looked them up online. I figured these were better than walking over a highway."

Ax was waling on the edge of the path. "Well you got that right! That would have been suicide." He paused and looked ahead. "Say, what are those?"

He pointed to what looked like a few scooters and skateboards. He ran up to them and found out they were. "Cooooool!" Ax said and picked one up.

They others caught up and also looked at the items. "Huh, someone must've left them down here…" Ceil said, she picked up a skateboard. "Hey, someone's name is inscribed here…" She picked away some of the rust and saw the name 'Yumi'.

"It says Yumi on it."

The others, following suit, did the same.

"Mine says Ulrich." Terry said, he had picked up a skateboard.

"Odd on mine." Ax said, skateboard as well.

"Jeremy…" Grant said. "Could this be his…scooter…?"

Terry looked over at Grant. "Hey, Grant, what were Jeremy's friends named?"

Grant put his scooter down and screwed up his face in concentration. "Err, their names were… Ulrich… Odd… annnnd… Yumi."

Almost immediately everyone dropped what they were holding and even Grant realized what happened. "Okay, now THAT is just plain weird!"

For a moment, no one did anything. Then Ax decided to do something. "Well, they've been missing of almost 20 years now, right? They won't mind if we use it!" He got on Odd's skateboard and got ready to push off.

"Wait! I wouldn't do that if I were you!"

"What? It's fine!" With that, he gave a mighty kick, and fell right into the water stream. He got up, completely soaked. Everyone fell down laughing. "Shut. Up."

Grant pointed to the rust on the wheels. "Man, 20 year of no use, that thing isn't going anywhere without oil!"

Ax sighed and felt his hair. "Aw man, my hair…"

The laughter started again. "Hey! I said shut up! Now, what do we do now?"

Terry and the others began to walk. "What else? We walk!"

After about a mile or so, they came to the end. "Huh. Dead end. What now?"

"Ax, it's just not your day is it? We climb!" Ceil said pointing to a ladder leading up, Terry and Grant were already near the top.

Ax tossed a stone at her to stop her laughing. "Hey, quit it!"

After Ax had made his way up, he stopped to observe the view in front of him. "Whoa, it's bigger than I thought."

The others agreed. "Yeah, you can say that again." Terry said.

Ax did.

"Ha ha."

The others rolled their eyes. "What? He said say it again!"

"Yeah, it was a joke, buddy."

Walking in, they admired the wide open spaces. Looking around, they saw tie off points for ropes, but the ropes themselves had long since deteriorated. Luckily, there was a ladder near by.

They took it down to the floor and stopped at a large, square gaping hole. There were was a large red button near it. Terry pressed it and nothing happened. He pressed it again. And again. And again.

"TERRY!" Grant yelled. "It doesn't work!"

Terry looked at him. "Well, why not?"

Grant looked at him as if he were insane. "From a first guess, there's probably no power!"

"Let's turn the power on." Ceil suggested.

Grant though about that. "Highly unlikely that there will still be power to this place, but sure, why not?"

"Good, it's settled. How do we do that?" Ax asked.

"Control room?" Grant suggested.

And so they went and began to look for the control room. Stopping every so often to check out the equipment and speculate on what was built here.

Grant scoffed at the large metal arms that were placed at the edge of the conveyor belts.

"What's so funny?" Terry asked. "I thought you like this kind of thing?"

He nodded. "I do, but this, this is junk!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, this stuff is not even fit for scrap metal! It's a wonder they ever made something here."

"I don't know, really. Probably car parts or something."

Ceil and Ax had gone ahead to see what was around. Ax came running toward them. "Heeey! Guess what! We found it! We found the control room!"

Grant went wide. "Alright! Let's see it!" Upon entering it, he laughed. "Whoo, this junk's even older than I thought!"

Ceil and Ax looked at Terry confused. "Don't worry, he marvels at how people survived with this stuff."

"Really? It's a mystery. But, never mind that, take a look at this…"

Ceil pointed to a bank of panels along a wall. Grant smiled. "Excellent, you found the circuit breakers. Let's see if we can get power back."

Terry took a closer look at one of the panels. "Do you think this is the one?" He pointed to one in particular; it looked like the rest but instead had what looked like an eye engraved in it. Plus, it was the only one unlocked. Terry flipped it open and was rather shocked to see a light on indicating power. The breaker itself was off.

"Whoa, this place DOES have power. Well? Turn it back on!"

Terry did so and the smallest of hums indicated that it was on. Ceil, Ax, and Grant looked around. Nothing was on, not even a light was on. "Let's go back to that hole, maybe it did something there." Ceil suggested.

They did so, making sure they examined everything to see what was given power. Arriving at the hole, they saw it was actually a cargo elevator shaft. It was open, and looked very rickety. Ceil walked toward it, but Grant stopped her.

"Wait, I don't think we should."

"Why not?"

"Look at it! It's not safe!"

"How do you know?"

Ax joined in. "Well, because everything else is falling apart."

Ceil broke free of Grant's grasp. "Oh please, live a little, you know?" Ceil walked into the elevator. She stomped around, and even jumped up and down a lot. But aside from creaking a little, it never moved. Terry shrugged, and went on it himself. Then Ax did as well.

Grant bit his lip and looked at the elevator. It was true, despite its looks; it wasn't giving way to anything. And with great apprehension, he went on it himself.

"Okay. Now what?"

Ceil was hunched over the control panel to the elevator. "I think we need a code or something to go down…"

Gant came over and looked for himself. There it was, a simple numeric pad. "Well, I don't know the code."

Terry shook his head. "I don't either."

Ax chimed in. "Me neither."

"Hey, there's something engraved on the cover." Ceil said. Taking a closer look, she saw it was a set of numbers. "0181361… Could that be the code?"

Without waiting for an answer, she punched in the numbers. Sure enough, the elevator closed its doors and lowered down very shakily.

Grant went white and held onto anything he could find. "Oh God, this is scary!"

Ceil was undisturbed. "It's still moving, right? It still works so what's so scary about it?"

"You can't feel that?"

"It's just old, you know?"

Finally, the elevator stopped with a bang. The door slid open and an even weirder sight met them. It was a door unlike any other. It looked futuristic and opened with a hiss, letting them into a room that looked way out of place.

"Wow… What on earth do we have here?" Ax said in wonderment.

Grant approached the monstrous computer screen and half visible dome in the center of the room. He took a seat and smiled, his fear completely gone. "It, it's a computer! A very big one, I'd guess… Probably a super-computer of some type."

The others walked up to it. "Is there power to it?"

"No, it seems to be off. There's no way to turn it on from here."

Ceil nodded. Let's see if there are any more rooms like this. They went back to the elevator and Ceil pressed the down button. And down they went, the same door greeting them as well. When this one opened, an even more bizarre sight greeted them.

Ax let out a low whistle. "Weirder and weirder."

Three giant tube stood around a small hatchway and a number of wires and cord led from each of the tubes to an unknown place in the walls.

Each of the tubes was numbered. 1 on the left, 2 in the middle, and 3 on the right.

"Maybe these are coolant tubes…" Terry offered weakly. Grant shook his head.

"No, these are something else. This isn't where you turn it on at." Grant walked over to the hatch and opened it. "Ah ha! Down there! It's down there!"

The others gathered around and looked down it. There was nothing but a shallow pool of foggy water.

Terry looked at Grant. "There? How do you know?"

He smiled. "One of the ways to keep a computer cool is to use water on it. I bet inside that pool is the switch to turn this place on."

They went down to the pool and shivered slightly. "They must use Freon and water to cool it."

Ax shivered. "Good to know, how do we raise it?"

"Good question."

They needn't worry about it, it began to raise itself. Each of them looked on with a different view as it rose.

Ceil thought it was cool.

Terry thought it was a little much.

Ax thought it was too slow.

Grant thought it was elegant.

Finally it stopped.

Ceil then noticed something similar to the circuit breaker. "Hey look! It has that same eye logo on it!"

"Huh, you're right, it does!" Grant reached towards the eye. The eye slid down revealing a knife switch. It was, as expected off.

Grant's hand crept ever closer.

But would he do it? Would he reawaken an evil from 20 years ago?

Or would they leave and never return?

20 years went in to the creation of this day. 20 long years, just for this moment.

Just for a simple act of flipping a switch.

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Next Chapter Soon!


	5. Reawaken Dear Xana!

Past and Present

By thesuperdot

Chapter 5: Reawaken, Dear Xana!

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Grant's hand hovered over the switch on the super-computer. He bit his lip, and a though occurred to him.

"Why is it off in the first place?" He withdrew his hand. "Why is it in an abandoned factory?"

Terry, Ceil, and Ax groaned. "Grrrant! Just turn it on already!" Ax said.

"No, wait, just listen! Think of it, none of this makes any sense. Why on earth is there a very large computer in what is essentially a bunker? Who put it here?"

"We don't know." Was Terry's reply.

"Maybe it was an abandoned project in the government." Ceil suggested.

"True, but why was it abandoned?" Grant persisted.

Ceil shook her head. "Who really cares? Listen, there's a switch for a reason. If something goes wrong, we simply come back down here and shut it off. Simple and effective."

Grant rolled his eyes. "Okay, I guess." And his hand grabbed hold of the switch and pulled it down. "There. It's on."

Nothing happened. There wasn't even a slight hum to indicate anything came on. No lights, nothing. The only thing that happened was the 20 years of past suddenly became present and the cover slid back into place.

"It is? Nothing happened." Ax said.

Terry rolled his eyes. "Thank you, Mr. Obvious."

Ax glared at Terry, Ceil shook her head. "Let's try going to the computer monitor. Maybe something happened there."

They rode the elevator up two levels. Nothing was on, or at least, at first glance. Grant walked over to the chair. The others looked at him expectantly.

"Hey, you're the computer nerd, you figure it out!" Ax said. Terry and Ceil agreed.

"Yeah, take a look, please?"

"Come on, this is your element!"

"Oh, alright." Grant took a seat. Suddenly, there was activity! The chair swung around toward the monitor and keyboard and halted once it arrived. "Ooooookeeeeyyyyy. Something's on…"

Grant's fingers hovered over the keys as he read the screen. He placed them onto the arm rest and sat back. "Huh, it, it's on…"

The others rushed over to see. Sure enough, on the screen were the words:

_System ready. Begin activation?_

Grant's finger barely touched the 'y' key when the screen became a flurry of text and gibberish. The other screens began to switch on one at a time, also displaying text, numbers, and gibberish.

The half made dome flicked itself on and displayed what could be regarded as the most bizarre map conceived. It appeared to be testing itself, rotating around, lighting up different areas, showing close ups of other areas, and displaying text about certain areas. But just as it started, it stopped. So did all the screens.

_Activation complete. Do you wish to connect now?_

Grant pressed the 'y' key again. This time, the screens went blue and a loading bar appeared in the center one. Once it hit 100, a few screens changed.

In the top left screen, channel 6 was being displayed. In the top right screen, the system vitals, such as CPU usage, connection, memory left, were displayed. And at the bottom of the main screen, a simple bar was located.

_Command:_

Grant looked at it and then at his friends. "I, I, think we're in…" He stammered. "But, I, I've no idea what I'm doing…"

They didn't care. "You look like you do."

In the command line, Grant typed in 'GUI' for Graphical User Interface. The screen refreshed and showed a much clearer picture of what they were dealing with.

A number of icons appeared with little labels to them:

_Lyoko Monitor_

_Profile Editor/Creator_

_Tower Checker_

_Scanner Access_

_TV Control_

_Time Reversal Settings_

"Hey, check that out, profiles! This must be a game of some sort." Ceil said.

"I don't know about that. That could be network users." Grant reminded him.

"We'll never know unless we click on it!" Terry said.

"More like type it. There is no mouse." Grant did so.

_Current profiles:_

_Aelita (Protected)_

_Ulrich (Protected)_

_Yumi (Protected)_

_Odd (Protected)_

_Protected profiles cannot be modified. What do you wish to do?_

Grant typed in 'Create new'. A new dialog box appeared.

_How many do you wish to create? Max 3_

Grant typed in '3'. The whole screen refreshed and a new dialog box appeared.

_Profile creation is an automatic process. Please send the subject down to the scanners to continue. Press any key to continue._

Below it, a picture of the scanner room popped up. It looked just like the room below.

"Cool, well guys? Let's go see what it wants!" Without another word, Ceil ran off into the elevator and down into the scanner room. Grant looked at Terry and Ax.

"Uhh, why don't you go make sure she's okay, okay?"

They did so, albeit reluctantly. Grant pressed a key and the profile screen closed out to the scanner access screen. He decided to click on the middle one. He then noticed that a small message had appeared.

_Intercom active._

"Ah, hello?" He said.

"Hiya, Grant!" Ceil's cheery voice called back.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Down one floor, Ceil stood in front of the open tube and looked into the blinding white interior. Terry and Ax ran up to her. "Hey, guys, check it out."

"It's white…"

"What do we do?"

Ceil began to approach it. Terry placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "What do you think your doing?"

Ceil brushed his hand off and smiled. "Going in, of course."

"Do you think…"

"I'll be fine!" She took a deep breath, and then let it out. To be truthful, she was a bit nervous. She stepped in and turned around, smiling. "See? Told ya!"

A message appeared on the computer stating the following:

_Subject detected in Scanner 1. Closing door._

And the door to the scanner closed tight. Finally causing Ceil to freak.

"Hey! What just happened! Grant! Terry! Ax! What going on?"

Terry stood there in alarm. "Grant! What'd you do?"

Grant voice crackled over the PA. "I, I don't know! It just started by itself."

"Well? Get her out!"

A new message appeared on the screen:

_Proceed?_

Grant quickly hit 'n'. But something went wrong. The screens began to distort and flicker and for the briefest of moments, a large red picture of what could be described as an eye appeared. That was followed by red text.

_Error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error error_

_Proceeding… Creating profile for… Ceil…_

"Hey! What's going on? I feel… funny…" Ceil was saying. "Terry! Ax! Get me out of here!"

"Grant, what is going on? Stop it already!"

"I can't! I lost control!"

"Guh… Ohhh… Errraaaa…. GYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Ceil screamed.

Terry grabbed his hair in panic. "CEIL!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA…………….."

Then silence.

Up above, Grant could only stare in wonder at what just happened. The scanner screen had switched to a view of Ceil, having something done to her. Then a green circle appeared, and the screen switched to what appeared to be a map.

The left screen switched on and showed a picture of Ceil on a sort of status card. The right side switched on and displayed a list of nearby towers and their status. The very top middle screen showed a detailed map of the sector she was in. Next to him, the holo-map appeared, and indicated which area was active. It was labeled 'forest'.

"Gr, grant? Are you there?"

"Yes, I am. Can, can you hear me?"

"Where am I! What just happened? I feel very strange!"

Grant switched on the intercom. "GUYS! Get up here! You've got to see this!"

Terry and Ax did so, but weren't sure what they were looking at. "Guys, she in the computer!"

"What?" "Where?" "I'm where?"

"She, Ceil, is inside the computer!"

Terry shook his head. "No way! You mean to tell me that Ceil has gone from meat and bone to a computer language?"

Grant nodded. "Yeah! Ceil is now a program in the computer! What's it like there, Ceil?"

Grant switched it to intercom and everyone listened to what she said. "It's very odd! I, I'm in a forest! A very big forest at that!"

"Yes, okay! But do you feel any different?"

There was a pause. "No, actually, I don't…"

Ax scratched his head. "Then why'd you scream?"

"I was startled… It really isn't that bad…"

Grant brought up the scanner screen and opened tubes 1 and 3. Terry and Ax saw what he just did.

"Wait, we don't know if she can come back!"

Grant took the point, brought up the screen and was unable to figure out what to type.

He finally decided on 'retrieveceil' and was greeted with the following message:

_Profile Ceil cannot return direct from Lyoko unless a Time Reversal is triggered OR she enters a tower. No tower is active; therefore no Time Reversal can occur._

"See? She can come back, all she has to do go to a tower."

Terry shrugged. "Alright. I guess I'll go and keep her company." Ax was less enthusiastic about it was eventually dragged away by Terry.

"Good luck!" Grant called after them.

Terry took tube number one; he set Ax in front of number 3. Terry closed his eyes and stepped in. The same thing happened. Ax stood in one place before finally stepping into the tube.

He had the sensation of being pulled apart, painlessly, and being put back together again. When that was finished, he found himself in a whole new world.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Next Chapter Soon.


	6. Encounters

Past and Present

By thesuperdot

Chapter 6: Encounters

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Grant sat alone in the underground bunker staring at the computer screen in front of him.

On this very screen, despite all logical explanations, were his friends, Terry, Ceil, and Ax. They were human, of course, but not at the moment, they were digital.

And from the sounds of it, they were having a bang up time of it!

"I can't believe this! We are in a virtually created world!"

"You're telling me! We look different, but feel the same!"

"Hey, Grant? What's your opinion of this? You there, man?"

Grant's head snapped up. He was reading a bit of the online manual for the computer. He really didn't need it; the computer was surprisingly easy to use, despite what it could manage. "Yeah, I'm here. I've really no idea what to think… It, it's just so…"

"Bizarre?"

"Bingo! I wonder if Jeremy's ever seen this before. Or maybe even created this?"

Ceil's voice came through. "That could be it, but I doubt it. This place hasn't been used in awhile."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, but still…"

……………………………………………………………………………………………...

Inside Lyoko, three new people were still adjusting to what was going on. Ax was the last one through the scanner. He materialized into thin air and dropped down in front of Ceil and Terry.

"Whoa… That was… Different!"

Ceil and Terry laughed, they looked different, or rather, they had different clothes on.

"You okay there Ax? You look kinda feverish."

Ceil joined in. "Yeah, so much that your hair is on fire!"

"Wait, what?" Ax put a hand to his hair, only to find that it was indeed on fire. "YIKES!"

Ceil and Terry began to laugh even harder. Ax then realized that he was supposed to be that way. "Oh, ha, ha, guys!" Ax took a better look at himself. He was wearing his usual outfit, although, it was slightly steaming, he also was wearing black gloves, and although he couldn't see it, his eyes were bright orange.

He pointed a finger at Terry. "Well, the only good thing about yours is that your face is covered!" Then with out warning, the tip of his finger ignited. "Whoa…"

Terry's face was indeed covered up; leaving only his eyes visible, but he looked much like a ninja. In fact, everything from the outfit a normal ninja would wear was exactly what he was wearing. On his back, however, there were two katana, ready for him to use.

"Hey, Ax? I think you can manipulate fire in here!"

"Really, Terry? How do you know that?"

"The tip of your finger is acting like a lighter. I'd say that's a pretty good idea of what you can do."

Ax held his hand out as if he wanted something, and sure enough, a baseball sized ball of fire materialized in his hand, hovering a few cm above it. "Sweet!"

Suddenly, Ax and Terry were picked up by an unseen force. They struggled to get out, but found themselves unable to do so. Then they heard a voice nearby.

"HA! Oh, man! That was the easiest surprise I have ever pulled on you two!" Ceil stepped out from behind one of the large trees. Ceil looked more along the lines of a magician. She was wearing a large red robe that trailed a little on the ground; it was tied around the waist by a golden rope. Underneath the robe, near the ground, she had on a pair of blue pants and some brown shoes. She also had on white gloves, and a blue conical hat with a combination of stars and moons. He long blond hair was not in a pony tail, it was straight behind her.

To Terry and Ax, she looked like Mickey Mouse the Wizard. She was displeased when they said that, and made no concern to let them down gently. Rather, she made sure that the ground was dented when they hit.

Terry pulled out his sword and prepared to lunge at Ceil. But when he did, he hit an invisible wall. Ax also began to laugh. Terry got up, rubbing his nose.

"Ouch, what was that for?"

"You were going to attack me!" Ceil said.

Terry growled and then unexpectedly vanished. Ceil and Ax abruptly stopped and looked around. "TERRY! Where'd you go?"

From somewhere in front of them Terry's voice came. "What are you talking about? I'm right here!"

"Well, she means we can't see you!"

"Grant, will you tell them I'm still here?"

"Well, the map says you are, but the virtual camera shows you're gone. You must be invisible, I guess."

"Invisible, huh?" Then, Terry went silent.

"Err, Terry…?" Ax said, nervously. Nothing.

"Hey, Terry cut it out, would ya?" Ceil said, though not as nervously. Suddenly, Ceil felt a shoe or something on her back and before she could react, Terry had knocked her down and stood on her back with a smile.

"HA! GOTCHA!"

Face first in the ground, Ceil said nothing coherent. "Ett ff my accck."

"What?"

Ax shrugged. "I think she said get off my back."

Terry did and even helped her up. She said thank you by a very hard punch to the face. Ax, who had begun to laugh again, laughed harder.

"Shut up, Ax!" Terry and Ceil said.

"Well, then, now that we're here, what now?"

Ceil took control immediately. "Let's check out one of those towers that were mentioned."

"Alright, hey Grant! Where's one of those towers?"

Out in reality, Grant tapped the keys on the computer. "Erraaa, the nearest one is about two miles away; juts keep heading straight from where you are."

"Two miles?"

Grant voice sounded cheerful at this. "At least you'll get some exercise!"

"Well? Shall we?" Ceil said.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

In the real world, Grant was monitoring the status of what he now knew was called Lyoko. He was becoming more and more used to the layout of the computer, in fact, although he didn't know this, it was what Jeremy based his world famous JOS off of.

A sharp beeping alerted Grant to a small red dot approaching Terry, Ceil, and Ax from behind.

"Hey, guys! Something's coming toward you." A small message indicated the name of what it was. "Something called a roach…"

On Lyoko, the guys stopped and looked up when Grant spoke to them.

"A roach? Must be a creature of some sort." Ceil said.

Ax pounced at this. "AH HA! Pointing out the obvious, are we Ceil?"

Ceil snapped her fingers as Ax laughed. A clicking sound from behind them alerted them to the 'roach'. Sure enough, the thing came into view and stopped a few feet from Ceil. It looked at them and they looked at it.

"Whoa, weird lookin' thing, isn't it?" Ax remarked.

Terry had one of his swords out, just in case. Ceil, however, had no problem with the thing, she reasoned that it wasn't a threat. Ceil even knelt down on one knee to get closer to it.

Cocking her head to the side she remarked: "It seems harmless enough, it even has the eye-thing on it."

Ax placed a finger to his lip. "I don't think that's a good idea…"

"Yeah, why don't you leave it alone? Let's find that tower."

Ceil looked at Terry. "Aw, come on! If it was going to attack, it would have…"

She got no further. The roach charged up a shot and it her square in the chest, knocking her back a few feet. She landed hard on the ground. "Cough… Cough…"

Ax and Terry were totally shocked at that. "GOOD GOD!" "CEIL! ARE YOU OKAY!"

Grant was hearing all of this, and even saw the HP on Ceil drop to 90. "Hey, what's going on? What happened? Is Ceil okay?"

The roach managed to get two more shots in before Terry and Ax decided to distract it.

Terry pulled out his swords and began to stab the creature, but, much to his horror, they bounced off like rubber.

Ax, too, began to attack, throwing fireball after fireball but, it seemed as if the creature was fireproof as well!

Ceil was unable to do a thing as the roach hit her with shot after shot. Terry let out a cry of frustration. "ARRRRGGHH! We can't kill it! What is this? A bug in the computer?"

A voice then came out of nowhere. "The symbol! The symbol is the weak point!" Followed by what looked like a disk hitting the roach in the front, cleaved it in two, and exploded.

Two more roaches appeared out of nowhere from behind a few trees and approached them from behind, their lives, however, was cut short by two arrowheads, again right to the head.

Finally, a large block like creature dropped down from the trees. This one was cut down by the owner of the voice; he took his sword and plunged it right into the glass dome on it, causing it to explode.

Terry and Ax ran over to the crumpled form of Ceil and help her up. But before they could thank their saviors, the sword-wielder pointed his sword at Terry's neck, another, this one in purple, dropped down along with a female.

Finally, a pink haired girl ran up to them

The purple one took aim at Ax's throat, and the female had Ceil in throwing distance of her fan.

For awhile, no one spoke. Finally, the sword wielder did. "Who are you?"

The purple one answered that for them. "They don't seem like Xana monsters."

"We… we… Xana? What…?" Was all Terry could say. The sword wielder waved his sword evilly.

"WHO. ARE. YOU?"

"My, my name is, t, Terry. The fire one is Ax, and, and the fe, female is Ceil…"

Finally the female spoke. "Do you think they are AI's?"

The pink haired girl shook her head. "No, I'd know if they were. I'm the only one here, so they must be new people."

The purple kid gave a suggestion. "Why not ask Jeremy? He could tell us."

"Very well. Jeremy! Who are these people?"

Grant answered. "Hey, what on earth is going on down there? Four more cards have appeared as well as four new dots! Looks like your having a social gathering, actually."

The four mystery people looked at each other in shock. "HEY! Who are you and what did you do to Jeremy?"

There was a pause. "Who's Jeremy? And who are you?"

Ceil regained her composure. "Put the weapons down. We won't run." She said with infinite calm.

"Not a chance!" Then the swordsman saw the purple kid and the female do it. "What are you doing?"

"I believe them; after all, Xana attacked them."

The swordsman shrugged. "Yeah, alright. But I still don't trust them."

Terry felt braver. "And who are you? We told you our names."

"I'm Ulrich." Said the swordsman.

"Name's Odd." Said the purple kid.

"Yumi." Said the female.

"And I am called Aelita." Said the pink haired kid.

Grant voice called out. "Good God! Did they just say what I think they said?"

Terry shook his head slightly. "Yeah… but, that can't be!"

Ulrich cocked his head to the side. "Can't be what?"

"You three should, by all means, be dead!" Ceil finished.

"What? What on earth do you mean, dead?"

"She means just that! You guys went missing!" Ax said.

"No way! Jeremy would have saved us, he's always willing to place himself in danger for us." Said Odd.

Grant spoke again. "You three have been missing for almost twenty years!"

Aelita gasped. "That explains why I saw a time discrepancy!"

Yumi looked at Aelita. "Then, shouldn't we be gone from Lyoko itself?"

Aelita shook her head. "No, he must not have cleared the memory banks."

"Ah, why don't we continue this outside of Lyoko?" Ceil asked.

The missing people looked at her. "Sure, but we won't be able to take Aelita with us."

"Why not?"

"Aelita is an AI. She can't leave. Jeremy was looking for a way to let her out."

Grant gasped aloud. "A… I…? Artificial Intelligence?"

"Yes. I am an AI."

"OHHHHHH SNNNNNAAAAPPPP! That ROCKS!"

Terry smiled. "Forgive him, he's a computer lover."

"Heh, we know how it is; Jeremy was a computer geek as well. He helped us out in a number of situations."

By this time, they had reached the tower, the all entered it. Aelita began to tap on a virtual keyboard. "Okay, Grant was it? I'll take care of everything, you make sure it works. We'll send Terry, Ax, and Ceil first, then Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi next. You tell me when the scanners close."

"Okay, sounds simple enough."

As soon as Grant made sure the tubes were closed for Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi, he threw off the headset, jumped off the seat, and ran down to the elevator.

His only thought: 'Why do I feel that this is going to get messy?'

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Arriving down at the scanner room, brief introductions were made.

This was immediately followed by what to do now that the ones who'd been missing were actually stuck inside a computer for 20 are back.

The only one that Grant knew of who might have an idea was, of course, Jeremy.

And, so, after a unanimous decision, they hopped into the elevator and rode it up to the top.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

After they had left, the monitor began to act funny. It flickered and showed random images then finally displayed a simple message of alarming proportions.

_Warning! Activity detected!_

_Tower 387 activation imminent!_

_Time remaining: T- 1:00:00… 0:59:59… 59:58… 59:57… 59:56…_

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Next Chapter Not as Soon as I'd Like! I'm going to work on my other stories for a bit.


	7. Reunion

Past and Present

By thesuperdot

Chapter 7: Reunion

………………………………………………………………………………………………

In a neighborhood just outside of the city, and not too far from the school, a small house stood, the occupant a well known individual.

In fact, the house itself belonged to one of his friend's parents; they no longer needed it and offered it to him at a very decent price. They, however, were paid the full amount.

Since that time, the overall structure stayed the same, except that one of the bedrooms is now his server/office area.

The server he used was actually the very same computer he used since his time in school, albeit heavily modified since then. He even has his same laptop, again, heavily modified.

In this very room, is a vault, this vault contains no money or deeds to a house, those are kept in a safety deposited box elsewhere, but top secret documents on the governments of almost every superpower. They are mostly technical specs for proposed ideas and things that need to be fixed up or improved, but it still remains, they can wreak havoc in the wrong hands.

Another feature of this very house is a wall in the living room. It contains many pictures and awards on it. Mostly achievements and degrees from many foreign countries, a number of magazine covers, he being the topic of interest, and even 2 Time magazine Person of the Year covers. Plastered around these items are a number of pictures with him and a few very important people, mostly important in the computer industry. But the most powerful picture is near the bottom, right above a glass case on a table. In this case are three cell phones, and a small book, above it, a simple small picture showing him and his friends.

Now it is time to turn his attention to the front door, as the owner has just returned from work.

It is none other Jeremy, and he is being accompanied by a man in a suit and dark glasses.

"Oh, no, it's no problem. In fact, I'd just got done with it."

"Really? What was the problem?"

"Some one in your department put in a piece of code that was messing up the zoom feature, as soon as I removed it, everything began to work great. Just install that program and it should be fixed."

The man in black nodded. "Understood. We thank you for your time and 50,000 dollars shall be sent to your account."

"Hey, just take your time with it; I've got enough to get through the year! Or next life, actually…"

The man said nothing and left. Jeremy sighed. He despised them, too strict to realize that formality wasn't needed with him. True, he was the most important person in the IT field, but still…

Jeremy walked to his kitchen and grabbed a soda and some chips, then went to his office and grabbed a few items from his safe and wondered to his favorite reclining chair, he never used the couch, which was for guests.

Taking a seat, he popped on some music, and began to flip through the papers.

CIA wanted help with the new sever system; KGB needs a patch for a security flaw; Microsoft still has a few bugs with the Xbox 360; Some Japanese Company needs help with a fix for their new GPS system, it keeps saying your 35 miles from where you actually are; the list went on.

Jeremy sighed and started on the Xbox problem. He began to read the summary, chances are it's nothing.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Outside of the house, 7 people, all kids, marched up the road and onto Jeremy's property.

6 of them looked a great deal alike, well, perhaps not, but you could tell they were alike in some ways, the 7th showing the way.

"Wait, this is MY house!" Said one of the females.

The one showing the way shook his head. "Really? Well, not anymore, it's Jeremys!"

The one showing the way paused at the door. His hand reached up and began to knock at it. A voice soon answered.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Yes? Hello?"

"Ah, sir, it's me, Grant. I, I need to talk to you, it's very important."

Jeremy chuckled. He knew that Grant adored him; it was most likely a question about computers or the homework. Jeremy was surprised, however, to find him and 6 others at his door.

Odd, three of them looked VERY familiar.

"Yes? What?"

"Well, remember when we said we were going to explore a place?"

"Yes, yes I do." He fixated on the three who looked familiar. Then it finally hit him. "Wait, wait a second…"

He leaned closer. "It, it can't be…"

He began to shake and experienced a very odd sensation. He felt himself beginning to move his head to see something that would help him out. He felt his eyes move ever so slowly, felt every grind of the muscles there, finally to the point where his head was forced to move. He felt it there too, where every muscle ground against on another, feeling the shaking like an earthquake. His head stopped at a certain point on a certain wall.

It was his wall of awards and such, but more specifically, he was fixated on a certain picture.

He could feel his eyes zoom in on it and block out everything else. It was a picture of him and his missing friends; the very ones who were standing at his front door. He once again felt his muscles turn back to the front door and lock onto Grant. His heart was beating a 2x what it normally did.

"Grant."

"Y, yes?"

"Did you happen to find a water tunnel near the school?"

"Yes." His heart went 3x faster.

"Did you follow it to the very end?"

"Yes." 4x.

"Did you find an old abandoned factory?"

"Yes." 5x.

"Did you go into that factory and turn on an elevator?"

"Yes." 6x.

"Did you go down that elevator?"

"Yes." 7x.

"Did you…"

He paused and closed his eyes. It was a pathetic question that he damn well knew the answer to, but still, he had to know.

"Did you find and turn on a very futuristic computer?"

"Yes." 8x. Had there been a doctor of cardiologist there, he would have immediately called an ambulance for Jeremy.

"Oh. Okay." Jeremy said in a whisper and closed the door. His hand hovered over the deadlock for a minute. Finally, he locked it and stood there.

Turning, he ran up the stairs to his office and brought his computer out of its sleep. With a few deft keystrokes and mouse click, he brought up the network connections folder. He had never really gotten rid of the Lyoko Network Connection for the fact that not only would he need it once he figure out how to kill Xana and save his friends but also because it was too hard to get it on there.

But there it was. The little icon was there and a small message bubble near the bottom stated:

_Lyoko connection established_

Jeremy gritted his teeth together and clicked it open. Sure enough, the program sprang to life and the familiar layout appeared.

Jeremy was very shaken at this and carefully picked up his headset, almost as if it were a dead fish.

Then, in barely a whisper, he spoke.

"Aelita…?"

A second passed, then…

"Jeremy? Is that you?"

The pink haired girl appeared in her all-too-familiar box. Jeremy immediately dropped his set and ran out of his room and back to the front door.

Trembling, he undid the lock and opened the door.

With a face as white as a sheet, he managed a slight smile. "Hi… Guys…. Long time no see…"

Then, with that, his eyes went to the top of his head and he passed out, falling with a thud on the carpet of his floor.

Odd saw this and saw his chance to crack a joke. He got ready, opened his mouth and was beaten to it by Ax.

"Egad! We've killed him!"

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Next Chapter Soon! Jeremy copes with the return of his friends!


End file.
